How Naked Short-Selling Helped Support Uber’s Flailing Stock
Evan Niu
The Motley Fool, 15 May 2019
The public debut of the largest ridesharing company, Uber (NYSE:UBER), has not gone well. Widespread investor pessimism over the sustainability of ridesharing economics helped push shares down after going public last Friday, following the IPO pricing at the low range of expectations. An estimated 81% of the equity capital that Uber raised in the private markets is now sitting in the red, according to Axios.
Uber’s underwriters were apparently so concerned about the debut that they made a rare move: naked short-selling.